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A group of investors that includes two former Ohio State University football players is buying a
small Logan County bank with plans to expand it into central Ohio.

Buckeye Nation Interim said yesterday that it is buying Citizens Bank of De Graff, which dates
to 1885 and operates in De Graff and Logan County, about 70 miles northwest of Columbus. The
purchase price was $4 million.

Investors expect to open a loan office shortly after the deal closes in March in either
fast-growing northern Franklin County or southern Delaware County, with plans to expand it into a
full-service office.

Wilkinson, an All-American defensive lineman at Ohio State, was selected by Cincinnati as the
No. 1 pick in the 1994 NFL draft. He played for Cincinnati, Washington, Detroit and Miami in a
career that spanned 13 years.

Jackson played quarterback for the Buckeyes in the ’90s and then spent seven years in the
Canadian Football League.

Wilkinson has become a real-estate developer in Baltimore and owns a Chuck E. Cheese’s franchise
in Lima. As a small-business owner, he said, he has become frustrated in dealing with big banks,
and that’s why he got involved in the deal.

“The process of dealing with big banks has become a nightmare from every aspect,” he said.

Wilkinson said he looks forward to the bank having a tight relationship with small-business
owners and becoming a long-time partner that can provide guidance to small businesses.

“You just don’t have the kind of relationship with big banks,” he said. “They rush you in and
out. They string you along. The process is terrible.”

Community banking veteran Shawn Keller will be the bank’s president and CEO.

“We just kind of fit together,” Keller said of the investors and owners of Citizens who wanted
the bank to be sold to a group of investors who would keep it independent. “They’re very clean and
conservative.”

Keller said the new owners will be investing an additional $4 million in the bank to help
finance new products and the expansion into central Ohio. The new services will include online
banking, additional checking accounts and expanded mortgage-banking.

The new owners are betting on their history in banking and their business connections in central
Ohio to help drive the bank’s growth, said Phil Kinley, another banking veteran who will become
Citizens’ executive vice president and CFO.

“We’re going to tap into those relationships,” he said.

Steve Haxton, president of third-party consulting firm Jacob, Haxton & Boord, will be the
bank’s chairman.